A chunk of ice “the size of a breezeblock” fell from a plane on Tuesday morning onto a road in Sheen.

Hannah Clive, 40, witnessed the ice narrowly miss parked cars in Alexandra Road at about 10.45am and said the block landed with a loud bang.

The musician and writer, who is the daughter of the late actor and author John Clive, told the Richmond and Twickenham Times: “I was sitting there talking with my mother on the phone and interrupted her saying ‘mum, something just fell out of the sky’.”

Ms Clive said she investigated the fall with trepidation given that the body of a man had fallen from a plane onto the roof of a Richmond office last summer.

She said: “I wasn’t sure what I would find.

“It narrowly missed my car and there were large chunks of ice the size of a fist scattered all over the pavement and between the cars.

“I’m glad there were no children or adults walking past because it would surely have killed them had it hit them.

“A lot of parents with children walk down this road on their way to local primary schools but thankfully it’s the Easter holidays so many people are away.”

Ice can form from water leaking from aircraft, according to the Civil Aviation Authority, and it is a misconception that toilet waste is ever to blame as the facilities are only emptied when the plane reaches the ground.

There are roughly 35 reported cases of ice falling from planes in the UK each year.

Chairman of anti airport expansion group Hacan John Stewart said should Heathrow be given a third runway then ice falling from planes would be something Londoners saw more frequently.

Mr Stewart said: “Inevitably there will be more ice falling, there could well be more bodies falling too, for the very simple reason there will be a quarter of a million more planes flying over London.

“Any move to bring in quieter or cleaner planes makes absolutely no difference to the number of ice blocks or people falling from the planes.”

A spokeswoman from Heathrow Airport said she was unable to speculate whether the ice had actually come from a plane as there was no evidence either way, but urged anyone who believe they might be affected by similar situations to email heathrownoiseschemehelpdesk@tftconsultants.com.